Standing on the end of one of the pier’s of Fisherman’s Wharf in Victoria, British Columbia, I watch as a research vessel of the University of Victoria is cleaned and offloaded from a morning of… whatever it was doing. I stare at the water, and try to make sense of this city, and the Inner Harbor that has been both its commercial center and tourist hub for more than a century. And I think about this article, one I have known I wanted to write since I planned this trip.

I watch a water taxi – a cute little boat that roams between here and the more central harbor area – go past, wondering what my narrative vehicle will be to talk about some rather disjointed things. There’s Victoria’s maritime history, featuring countless shipwrecks along that stretch of Vancouver Island known as “The Graveyard of the Pacific.” There is the immigrant story, since Victoria was the primary access point before Vancouver took over as the main commercial port at the completion of the Trans-Canada Railway. And there is the tourist identity today, made up of some maritime features like this one, and also other totally non-related – but cool – things like the Victoria Bug Zoo. A sailboat passes, and I try to wave, but it’s too far away.

I watch as a ferry, either from the mainland or the United States, prepares to leave, and then shift my gaze as a seaplane lands on the calm cold waters. Could it really be that simple? Yes, I guess it could. Perhaps my vehicle for the article is the seagoing vessels I’m passing the minutes watching. We have commercial fishing boats, passenger ferries, and tourist-laden water taxis, and these all represent aspects of Victoria’s maritime history, and the sense of awe you’ll find exploring the city’s Inner Harbor.

In 1843, a small British outpost along a large natural harbor on the southern end of Vancouver Island became known as Fort Victoria in honor of the British monarch. And with the discovery of gold in western Canada in 1858, the now-city of Victoria was truly off to the races. Passenger vessels, the precursors of the sleek modern ferries that call here at the Inner Harbor, brought fortune seekers – and those who would both serve and exploit them – to what would become the capital of Britain’s Vancouver Island colony. By 1862, Victoria was incorporated, and on its way to being the most important British port in the region.

In 1866, Vancouver Island and British Columbia were united politically, and Victoria was chosen to be the capital, a title that would stick when British Columbia joined Canada in 1871. For the next fifteen years, until the completion of the railway terminus at Vancouver in 1886, Victoria would be the commercial hub as well as the political center of the new burgeoning province.

Imports and exports came through here, fishing was centered here, and even shipping bound for Vancouver counted on Victoria and a connected series of lighthouses along the rocky coast of the island for help and safety in one of the most deadly stretches for shipping. A small museum just off the waterfront (although I heard rumors it will be moving to a larger facility along the water in the future) recalls some of the most devastating shipwrecks through artifacts, storyboards, and models.

The Maritime Museum of British Columbia is just two small rooms, but even a brief fifteen or twenty minutes is enough to pay respect to those lost here in the Graveyard of the Pacific. Several displays tell the story of the SS Valencia.

Valencia was originally a passenger ship that traveled between New York and Venezuela. By the early twentieth century, she was a passenger liner on the west coast of North America. On January 22, 1906, Valencia wrecked off the western coast of Vancouver Island, with more than 100 passengers and crew – including all of the women and children on board – drowning in what was at the time one of the worst maritime tragedies in modern history.

While tales of hauntings and other fanciful stories lingered about Valencia and its terrible accident, the more practical aftermath of the wreck was the establishment of a coastal trail along the western side of the island, connecting lighthouses and shelters. Today used for leisure, the West Coast Trail was made necessary by shipwrecked sailors and passengers surviving sinkings only to perish on dry land.

Even on a cool October day, Fisherman’s Wharf is abuzz with activity. The wharf opened in 1948 to accommodate the city’s growing fishing fleet, but with that having lessened since, the area is now about half fishing and half tourism. Colorful floating homes, BnBs, and restaurants line some of the piers, like the one I’m standing on, offering picturesque views of the Inner Harbor and its multitude of boats while tourists chow down on fresh seafood unloaded just a few yards away.

Visitors aboard a water taxi wave at me, pleased that they are also an attraction, as they pass toward the “main” portion of the harbor. The Inner Harbor is just what it sounds like, the inner area of a multiple-channel natural harbor serving the city of Victoria and its neighboring towns, which together make up the Vancouver Island Capital Region. The Upper Harbor is today the busier commercial port, shared between Victoria and neighboring Esquimalt.

Once Vancouver overtook Victoria as the primary maritime hub for British Columbia, the island’s significance was reduced. But while the railway ended on the mainland, Victoria remained a passenger port for tourists and day-trippers, especially those from Seattle, since it is significantly closer by ferry than even Vancouver. So the Inner Harbor became a tourism center rather than a commercial one. Today’s Inner Harbor is awash with high-rise condos and hotels, cool cafes and nice restaurants, and visitor attractions that have nothing to do with the sea. (It is also still the governmental center, but we will talk more about that in an upcoming article about the Victorian era here in Victoria, despite the odd way it rolls – or more specifically doesn’t, at all – off the tongue.)

One of those attractions is the Victoria Bug Zoo, a three room wonder of the creepy-crawly things in the world. Staff are constantly rotating in the exhibits to talk to visitors about one bug at a time, and I pop into an existing group as it learns about mantises, and then leaf cutter ants. I hold some cool bugs, marvel at others, and totally enjoy the hour I spent after wandering in off the street.

And then I go back to watch the boats again. And I guess that is the theme here. Victoria’s Inner Harbor is historically important, currently cool, and abuzz with continued maritime activity. While that activity – and the watercraft associated with it – has changed with the decades, it remains undiminished. So whether you want to eat amazing seafood, learn some fascinating maritime history, or even allow a cool bug to crawl on you, this is the place. And you can watch the boats between all of it. Find me. I’ll watch with you.

Thank you so much to Destination Victoria for providing me with a Victoria Attractions Pass that allowed admission to the Maritime Museum of British Columbia and the Victoria Bug Zoo.

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